The Infinitum ad infinitum
by AspelKnows
Summary: I.a.i. follows Magnus Weller as she investigates the chance encounters between universes. For ten years she's worked for the Arcanum Agency, a group dedicated to studying other universes and now chronicles her experiences.
1. Preface

Compiler's Preface

I remember sitting wide-eyed in school, a mere teenager during a physics class on some Monday. I hadn't particularly wanted to be there; it was a Monday and I was a fourteen-year-old girl and naturally I loathed school. For the first ten minutes of the lesson I had stared out of the window, watching the gravcars fly past, envious of the adults flying to work.

Then the teacher, Mrs Cartwright I think her name was, began to introduce the subject of the Infinitum.

'The Infinitum,' she began, 'otherwise known as the Multiverse in some cultures is the overall encompassing of the many parallel universes.'

She began teaching us about all of the multiple dimensions that existed within the Infinitum; about how every permutation of reality existed out there, somewhere.

I'll admit that I zoned out when she began to explain the physics of it, something about axis's and probabilities. I was already daydreaming about the dimensions I wanted to visit. There were other 'mes' out there. I wondered what they were like. How different would they be?

Over the years my fascination with the Infinitum grew and I studied it in college, going on to university, devouring everything on the subject I could find.

I graduated with honours, gaining a BSc in Multidimensional Sociology and I found work in the Arcanum Agency.

My job was to study the multiple dimensions; to catalogue those discovered and label them, categorise them and study them.

I started that job almost a decade ago and I've never looked back. I've even been fortunate enough to visit several of them and study them first hand.

In that time I've collected an unfathomable amount of data and learned so much but closer to my heart, I have so many stories to tell. You see, the merging of dimensions and universes isn't merely something man-made (although for the fascinating story of how first contact was made with us from the "Virgo Universe" you can find it in H.S. Geigar's _The Birth of Times_, 2004) but something which has been known to occur naturally. Thankfully my colleagues tend to be burdened with investigating the causes of these "crossovers" while I have usually been tasked with documenting their results.

With that in mind, I would like to set some of those stories to dataslate, to tell the stories of the worlds out there as they mingle, mix and collide. From a sociological stand point the results have seldom failed to be fascinating (if somewhat dangerous at times) and it pleases me to relay a few of these stories to you.

I have opted to set out these stories in a narrative (partly because the raw reports make for vexing reading and partly because I enjoy it) although I may occasionally interject with the occasional source text or comment.

And so without further ado, I present:

_The Infinitum ad infinitum._

Magnus Weller, BSc.


	2. Of Magic and Bad Tidings Act 1

_Of Magic and Bad Tidings. Act 1._

By the start of this particular tale, I had been working for two years at the Arcanum Agency. I had navigated the shady tides of protocol and office politics, made friends, turned my office in to a nest and had earned the privilege of being on assignment to the _Noctis Research Station_. I was young and trim, not to mention eager and my hair was still a healthy blonde, free from stress-related-grey. Although, the more than occasional late night had rendered my usual dark blue eyes a rather more unpleasant bloodshot; although thankfully not too often.

This particular place was an agency run facility, situated in a mostly uninhabited dimension, codenamed "Fontaine." The facility rested on a double of Earth, the same but for the slight differences in the planet's tilt, rendering the night cycle three times longer.

The cause of this had been a spatial phenomenon, curiously in a geosynchronous orbit over the facility (which is why it was built there, presumably). The _Heitzvelder Exotic Particle Singularity_, named after the researcher charged with leading the facility, was known for causing seemingly random energy spikes, radiation and a host of entirely unpredictable phenomena. The H.E.P.S. didn't seem to conform to what we understood of physics.

During the team's study of the phenomenon, events that became known as _Continuity Incursions_ occurred all around the planet (although the majority of them tended to be on the face of the planet facing the singularity). Strange objects and creatures would appear from nowhere; some dangerous, some harmless.

Thanks to this phenomenon and the research facility's tireless work we have identified just over a dozen new elements and have identified forty-eight new species of life form.

Of course none of these creatures were anything more complex than common crustacea. That is, except for one.

- - -

The intercom next to my bed buzzed insistently, determined to rouse me from my sleep. I sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes and fumbled for the answer button, the flashing red light doing very little to illuminate my tiny spartan living quarters.

'Weller,' I answered tiredly, squinting to make out the time on the wall clock.

'Sorry to wake you,' the intercom buzzed, distorting the familiar voice of my friend Doctor Fines, 'But I've got something you need to see.'

I rubbed my eyes again and sat up,

'Can't this wait until the morning?' I asked with a yawn.

I slipped out of bed, fumbling for my dressing gown. At half past three in the morning the research staff would have to make do with me being groggy and underdressed.

'I'm afraid not Maggy,' he answered soberly, 'Someone just came out of one of the incursions.'

I stopped in my tracks,

'Did you just say "someone"?'

- - -

In the end I had decided to go with my uniform after all, having hurriedly thrown on a skirt, blouse and lab coat and rushed from the dormitory wing towards the quarantine wing. As I reached the large doors leading to the guarded section of the building I saw Doctor Fines waiting for me.

'What's going on Daniel?' I asked, striding hurriedly, 'Has he been able to communicate with us?'

Daniel Fines reached in to his own lab coat and produced an A5 sized dataslate, stifling a yawn. From the look of his stubble and unkempt short blond hair I'd have said that he'd just been woken up too. He pushed up his glasses as I took the pad from him and walked with him inside.

'We've been fortunate,' Daniel began, 'in that he speaks English.'

I looked at the image on the pad, scrolling through the pictures of the man. He appeared rather unkempt, with dirty shoulder-length brown hair and a messy van-dyke. I skipped to the initial notes, not quite believing that he had come through the phenomenon.

'Sirius Black?' I asked, repeating the name on the slate.

Daniel nodded,

'It's somewhat fitting that a man named after the brightest star in the sky would fall from the heavens like this, don't you think?'

I cast a sideways glance at my smirking friend. I'd have bet that he'd been working on that one-liner for ages.

'Do we know where he came from?' I asked.

Daniel shook his head,

'We've not been able to get much out of him thus far. We've confiscated his personal effects and assigned him quarantined quarters. If he checks out then you'll have the privilege of asking him yourself.'

At this point we had reached the cell in which he was being kept. I stood with Daniel, gazing through the two-way mirror that separated us.

The cell hadn't been designed for people and the man was clearly uncomfortable but there was nothing else we could do about it. I watched as two men in biohazard suits finished adjusting the bed they had just installed and left through the airlock leading out of the room. He looked so depressed, so lost. He simply sat on one of the benches with a forlorn look on his face.

Feeling a pang of pity I moved to the intercom and pressed the button, speaking through the tannoy in the room.

'Hello Mister Black. Can you understand me?' I asked.

The man looked up sadly and nodded.

'Listen,' I said, choosing my words carefully, 'I know this must seem very strange to you but we've had to separate you for safety reasons. We need to run some checks on you and then we can let you out and we can talk.'

'What kind of checks?' He asked, lifting his head. It seemed hearing a sympathetic voice incited some confidence in him.

'Well you've come out of something we call a Continuity Incursion, a phenomenon which has in the past caused radiation, exotic particles and other odd spatial phenomena. We need to make sure that you're not a danger to us.'

He nodded thoughtfully, looking round the room.

'I'm sorry about all of this Mister Black but I promise we'll have you out of there as soon as we can. In the meantime I'll send someone with some food and we'll work on getting you access to a shower.'

He seemed to pause for a moment, absorbing the words. I got the feeling then that he was deciding whether to try and escape or not. Apparently he settled on "not."

'Thank you.' He answered simply.

I released the button, the tannoy clicking in response and I turned, determined to catch up on my sleep…


	3. Of Magic and Bad Tidings Act 2

_Of Magic and Bad Tidings. Act 2._

'I don't get it,' I admitted, staring blankly at the dataslate in my hand, 'What in the buggery are Nadion particles?'

Daniel consulted the slate in his hand and furrowed his brow. He sat in awkward silence for a moment, tapping the keys on his slate. I could only imagine that he didn't know the answer and was checking the Internet.

I figured I'd save him some futile tapping,

'You don't know, do you?'

He smiled meekly, which I'll admit was a somewhat endearing,

'Not much of a scientist, am I?' Answering in his adorable Canadian accent.

He had a tendency to be somewhat self-depreciative, being the shy fellow that he was at the time. He'd transferred to the Noctis facility only four months previously. I had met him through my younger brother, Daniel's physics lecturer from York University and he'd come highly recommended.

'If it helps,' I reassured him, 'Half of the staff here admit to being baffled by the stuff that goes on here.'

He smirked,

'What about the other half?'

I took my glasses off and rested my feet on the table. It was late in the evening and the pair of us was discussing the events of the past two days in the rather sparse mess hall. After our guest had been showered and fed he'd allowed us to run some scans. I was due to interview him the day after and I wanted to bone up on the details of Mr. Black so I could at least have some educated questions to go in with. I was a sociologist after all, not a physicist.

'They've just been reluctant to admit it,' I smiled.

I returned to the subject at hand and consulted the slate again,

'So whatever these things are, our guest is bathed in them?'

Daniel nodded,

'And we've noticed heightened neural activity, but I'm not a doctor so I wouldn't know about that.'

Technically he _was_ a doctor, albeit not a medical one. The staff in the medical section were no doubt fascinated by this individual, as well as being happy to have a sentient being's samples to mess around with instead of bizarre cosmo-coral.

'So,' Daniel started, 'Is any of this likely to be helpful?'

I took another glance at the slate before dropping it carelessly on the table.

'Probably not…'

- - -

The interview room had gone unused up until this point (except for a lengthy practical joke a year prior to this involving an intern and a wholly fabricated investigation regarding "stolen radioactive materials") and the air had a certain stale quality to it.

Sirius Black sat confidently in the chair at the other side of the table from me, surrounded by two-way mirrors. I didn't want to interrogate him but the staff had insisted on recording the proceedings and it was the only room in the station with the equipment installed already.

'So Mr. Black,' I said as reassuringly as I could, 'How are you settling in so far?'

He looked at me with a tired smile; his grey eyes warm yet melancholy. He certainly looked tidier than when we'd found him although his long, black hair still seemed somewhat unkempt. He was a handsome man and somewhat regal looking, if a little gaunt. He had the look of a man who'd suffered in his lifetime, almost like he was used to it; a notion that would certainly explain his apparent confidence in being isolated in quarantine in a strange place for as long as he had.

He pondered over the question for a moment before replying,

'I've been made comfortable, thank you. Am I to assume that I'm no longer under quarantine?'

'I'm pleased to say that you are, under a few conditions.'

He leaned back, arching his fingertips. I referred to the dataslate lying before me on the table,

'We discovered several anomalous readings from you but they don't appear to be a danger to us, at least as far as we know. We'd like to keep you on the facility for observation.'

I slid the pad to him and watched as he took it slowly. He poured over it judiciously, studying it carefully. I decided to press on as he read.

'First I'm going to ask you some simple questions before moving on to the big stuff,' I said, trying to sound as empathetic as I could,

'Could you please confirm your full name?'

He looked up from the pad and nodded,

'My full name is Sirius Black.'

I nodded,

'And what is your current occupation?'

'I am unemployed I'm afraid,' he answered, again with that tired yet charming smile of his, 'Though I suppose you could call me a soldier.'

I jotted down some notes on my other pad, clicking on various virtual keys with the stylus.

'Oh? Were you involved in a war?'

He nodded, leaning in towards me.

'Indeed I was Miss Weller,' he answered, 'I've been wondering whether to tell you what I am about to and considering the circumstances I think it's in my best interest to be wholly honest with you.'

I paused for a moment, unsure how to react. I wasn't about to be in trouble, was I?

He smiled warmly,

'Don't misunderstand me Miss. I'm not dangerous. It's just that where I come from, what I'm about to tell you would be met with disbelief from people like you.'

'People like me?'

He smirked,

'Muggles, Miss Weller; tell me, what do you know about wizards?'

- - -

'I'm not sure where to begin,' I answered honestly. I was sitting in the main briefing room; an amber-toned room with a large table and very comfortable chairs. Our visitor had apparently been made a priority case as the heads of every department were sitting around this table, along with the facility director himself.

I turned to the director, Doctor Haine Mitchell and tried my best to explain what I was still trying to get my head round myself.

He looked at me expectantly. He was an individual with a no-nonsense attitude and that particularly trait shone through his demeanour, past the wispy grey air, sleepless eyes and formal lab-coat he wore. His narrow face seemed narrower today, intrigued and worried in equal measure, clearly.

'He claims to be a wizard sir.'

There was the odd scoff from around the table but I carried on regardless.

'He says that he was involved in a conflict of sorts when he was knocked through a portal of some kind. The next thing he knows, he woke up on the surface of this planet.'

'And do we believe him?' Another male voice asked. It came from my left, the familiar voice of the security chief, William Voise.

He was a hard-set man, with dark weathered skin, a square jaw and what I can only as eyes that seemed sceptical about everything.

'To a certain extent,' another voice piped in from my left. This time it was Doctor Maurice Chapman, Daniel's supervisor.

This man wasn't one to buy in to fairytales, which would certainly lend some credibility to his opinion. He seemed to be as old as the director and had the rigid demeanour of somewhat who always preferred the cold, hard facts.

'I'll admit that it sounds farfetched,' Maurice said hastily, 'but it would explain some of the strange readings we're getting from him.'

He pressed a button on his personal dataslate and a set of holographic images flickered to life in the centre of the table on the faces of a cube hovering in the air.

'His neural activity bears remarkable similarities to the readings we received from test subjects during the Archimedes Project four years ago.'

'And for those of us that weren't present for that?' Voise added.

Maurice cleared his throat,

'It was an experiment involving lab mice to induce certain psychoactive abilities by stimulating certain hormones. We noticed a marked increase in bioneural energy centred in nerve fibres and for a brief moment several of the subjects appeared to demonstrated an ability for telekinesis.'

'That was before the brain haemorrhaging,' the director cut in, looking at Maurice, 'The project was deemed a failure.'

'True,' Maurice answered, 'but we believe that the nadion particles emanating from his body may serve as some kind of boosting agent for latent psychic abilities.'

'Do we really have to listen to this bullshit?' Voise spat, 'Hell, I can't understand what the hell you just said but even I know it's all crap.'

Maurice rolled his eyes and I turned to him. He was a friend and I was going to back him up,

'So what are these nadion particles?'

The doctor tapped a few keys on his slate and the image on the projected cube changed to a set of complicated diagrams.

'Nadion particles were theorised about seventy years ago, before the gulf war but weren't proven to exist until about seven years ago when an alternative fuel commission had been doing some studies on the possibility of proving it existed and extracting it. They succeeded on the first objective, at least.'

He tapped the keys on his slate again and the picture changed to an image of the anomaly directly above us.

'When this place was discovered we found massive amounts of these particles in the vicinity of the anomaly and we've been researching it ever since.'

'But what is it?' A female voice from my right asked, a fellow Briton from the sound of her voice, albeit from further north than me. She was a botanist I think although I didn't know her name.

Maurice took a breath,

'Well, nadion particles are subatomic, high energy, fluctuations in the quantum state of the space-time continuum. Nadion particles exist throughout the Universe as "background" radiation and even in the deepest void of space, one can find nadion particles.'

He checked his slate, skimming over his notes,

'Due to the unique nature of nadion particles they affect both matter and energy. Furthermore, nadion particles are not true particles, but do possess mass and exhibit the wave motion properties of electromagnetic radiation. Hence, they travel through most matter at light speed, while still interacting with matter an atomic level.'

'So to sum up,' Voise cut in again, 'whatever energy he's giving off, it's the same as the anomaly and this means what?'

Maurice became quiet,

'We're not sure yet exactly, but from what we do know he shouldn't be dismissed.'

'Well It'd make me feel better if I could post more guards near him,' Voise said sardonically, turning to speak to the director,

'In case he decides to turn in to a dragon or something.'

Doctor Mitchell looked at me intently,

'His attitude aside, I'm inclined to agree. In addition Miss Weller, you will remain with this man at all times. Do you understand me?'

I nodded, wondering what I had gotten myself in to…


End file.
